SummerSlam (2010)
SummerSlam (2010) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It took place on August 15, 2010, at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California for the second consecutive year. It was the twenty-third annual SummerSlam event chronology. Six matches took place at the event. The main events of the evening included: Randy Orton defeating Sheamus via disqualification (with Sheamus remains the title) for the WWE Championship, Melina won the Divas' Champion against Alicia Fox, Kane retains the World Heavyweight Championship against Rey Mysterio, and Team WWE defeated against Team Nexus. Other matches featured on the show were WWE Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler versus Kofi Kingston, but ended in a no contest. SummerSlam received 350,000 pay-per-view buys, a decrease on the 369,000 buys garnered by SummerSlam (2009). Production Background Much like the previous year's SummerSlam, WWE promoted the event with its SummerSlam Axxess fan convention. The convention was held at the Nokia Plaza in L.A. Live from August 14 to 15. THQ revealed further details of the latest installment of their WWE SmackDown series, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011. Storylines The professional wrestling matches at SummerSlam featured professional wrestlers performing as characters in scripted events pre-determined by the hosting promotion, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Storylines between the characters were produced on WWE's weekly television shows Raw and SmackDown with the Raw and SmackDown brands—storyline divisions in which WWE assigned its employees to different programs. The main rivalry heading into SummerSlam from the Raw brand was between the champion Sheamus and Randy Orton over the WWE Championship. On the July 19 episode of Raw, Orton defeated Edge and Chris Jericho in a triple threat match to become the number one contender for Sheamus' WWE Championship at SummerSlam. On the August 9 episode of Raw, the anonymous Raw general manager added two stipulations to the match, stating that anyone who interfered in this match would be suspended indefinitely and if Orton lost, he would not receive another match for the championship while Sheamus is champion. The main rivalry heading into SummerSlam from the SmackDown brand was between the champion Kane and Rey Mysterio over the World Heavyweight Championship. On the May 28 episode of SmackDown Kane's storyline brother, The Undertaker defeated Mysterio to qualify for the fatal four-way match for the World Heavyweight Championship at the Fatal 4-Way pay-per view in June. During the match however, The Undertaker suffered a legitimate injury, forcing him to be written out of the match by having him found in a "vegetative state" by Kane over Memorial Day weekend. As a result, Kane accused several wrestlers of incapacitating his brother and attacked them. Mysterio won a battle royal to replace The Undertaker by last eliminating Kane, and went on to defeat the defending champion Jack Swagger, Big Show and CM Punk at Fatal 4-Way to win his second World Heavyweight Championship. At Money in the Bank, Kane won a Money in the Bank ladder match and cashed in his championship opportunity on Mysterio later that night, after Mysterio had defeated Swagger to retain. Kane defeated Mysterio to win his first World Heavyweight Championship. On the July 23 episode of SmackDown, Mysterio defeated Swagger in a two-out-of-three falls match to earn a rematch against Kane for the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam. On the July 30 episode of SmackDown, Kane revealed that The Undertaker had disclosed that his attacker was Mysterio, and vowed to get revenge. Another main rivalry from Raw featured The Nexus, a stable consisting of former NXT 'rookies' led by the season's winner Wade Barrett, against 'Team WWE', led by John Cena. The Nexus made their debut as a collective unit on the June 7 episode of Raw, attacking Cena, CM Punk, and members of the ringside crew, on the pretext of demanding guaranteed WWE contracts for all of them. The following week on Raw, the then-General Manager Bret Hart refused and as a result, The Nexus attacked and incapacitated him, forcing WWE Chairman Vince McMahon to appoint a new, anonymous General Manager, who ultimately signed all members of The Nexus to the show. The Nexus continued to frequently attack various WWE wrestlers, crew, and legends to display their dominance, although they focused mainly on Cena, costing him the WWE Championship twice at Fatal 4-Way and Money in the Bank. On the July 19 episode of Raw, Cena confronted The Nexus, who offered him a place in their stable, which he refused and instead revealed that he had assembled a team, christened 'Team WWE' (consisting of Cena himself, Edge, Chris Jericho, John Morrison, R-Truth, The Great Khali, and Bret Hart), to face The Nexus in a seven-on-seven tag team match at SummerSlam. On the July 26 episode of Raw, the anonymous general manager changed the match to an elimination format. Following dissension on Cena's team in the next few weeks, Edge and Jericho left the SummerSlam match on the August 2 episode of Raw. They rejoined the following week, however, when The Nexus tried to attack the members of Team WWE and Edge and Jericho. On the same episode, Khali was attacked by The Nexus, removing him from the match at SummerSlam. The Miz offered his services to the team as Khali's substitute, ultimately saying that he would reveal his final decision at SummerSlam itself. Another rivalry from the SmackDown brand pitted Big Show against The Straight Edge Society, a stable preaching the hardlined straight edge lifestyle, led by CM Punk and consisting of Luke Gallows, Joey Mercury and Serena. In May, at the Over the Limit pay-per-view, Punk lost a match to Rey Mysterio, forcing Punk to have his head shaved bald as a result of the stipulation. In order to conceal his baldness, Punk started wearing a mask until Big Show forcibly removed it on the July 16 episode of SmackDown. In attempt to avenge Punk's humiliation, the Straight Edge Society's masked "mystery man" faced Big Show in a match, but had his own mask removed during the match, revealing him to be Joey Mercury. On the July 30 episode of SmackDown, the Straight Edge Society attacked Big Show and repeatedly stomped his right hand into the steel ring steps. The following week, it was announced that the Straight Edge Society would be facing Big Show in a three-on-one handicap match at SummerSlam. Another rivalry from the Raw brand was between the champion Alicia Fox and Melina over the WWE Divas Championship. In December 2009, Melina tore her ACL at a live event, which caused her to vacate the Divas Championship. At Fatal 4-Way in June, Fox won the title in a fatal four-way match against Maryse, Gail Kim and defending champion Eve, and retained the championship against Eve at Money in the Bank. On the August 2 episode of Raw, Melina made her return and attacked Fox. The following week on Raw, Melina defeated Fox in a non-title match and was rewarded with a title opportunity at the Divas Championship at SummerSlam. Aftermath The next night on Raw, the anonymous general manager of Raw announced that members of The Nexus would face off against members of Team WWE in a series of matches throughout the evening. In order to find the "weak links" of the group, The Nexus' leader, Wade Barrett, declared that anyone in The Nexus who lost their match would be excommunicated from the group. Ultimately, each Nexus member won their match except for Darren Young, who lost to John Cena by submission. After the match, the remaining six members brutally attacked Young, symbolizing his banishment from The Nexus. According to Jericho and Edge, the original plan was to put Barrett and The Nexus over and establish them as legitimate threats to WWE. Cena would have been eliminated early from the match, with Jericho and Edge being the last members of Team WWE to be eliminated by Barrett. However, Cena refused to lose to The Nexus as he thought it would make him look weak and asked for the finish to be changed to him making Barrett tap out to the STF. Jericho said that Cena having the finish changed was a bad idea, as the loss ended up destroying The Nexus's momentum. Results 7 on 7 Elimination Tag Eliminations Other on-screen personnel See also * List of WWE pay-per-view events * SummerSlam Category:SummerSlam Category:2010 Pay-Per-View Events Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events